Notebook: Lady Hodags pick up the tempo on first day

With the majority of last year’s squad returning, and a number of underclassmen ready to make an immediate impact, the Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team hit the ground running Monday on its first official day of practice for the winter season.

The varsity squad has practiced both before and after school this week — something that has been common place during coach Ryan Clark’s 13 seasons at the helm. What isn’t as common is the amount of full team drills the squad was able to jump right into on Day 1. 

“I feel like we were going to get more team stuff in this time than we have in the past,” coach Clark said, noting his team did more 5-on-5 drills than ever on the first day. “I think in the past, we just played a lot. Our skills weren’t quite where they needed to be, so we did a lot of 3-on-3. I think this year we’re going to kind of go whole first, get everything in, and then we’ll start building the skills back up a little bit. But they’re already pretty skilled kids. So the foundation is pretty strong.”

Expectations are high for the Hodags following a 13-12 campaign last year and a third-place tie in the Great Northern Conference. The team did a bulk of that without leading scorer Aubryn Clark, who missed the final 12 games of the season due to a back injury. Not only does Aubryn Clark return, but her younger sister, Teagan, headlines a freshman class full of players who could factor in the rotation immediately. 

“Kids are super excited. We have so many juniors that know the expectations, our standards of our programs,” coach Clark said. “So they’re on time, they’re very self-motivated young ladies. Pretty easy to coach that group. And then the young kids coming in just follow their lead.”

Coach Clark said the team worked on its transition and half-court offense during Monday’s opening practice. Even that will have a bit of a different look this year as the team leans into more of a free-flowing, European-style system.

“It’s fun with Aubryn and Teagan be able to create and everybody else with their processing, they’re really smart, making good reads, really unselfish kids. So should be a lot of fun,” coach Clark said.

Rhinelander wraps up the opening week of practice tomorrow in Wisconsin Dells where it will take part in a multi-team scrimmage where it is slated to face River Valley, Almond-Bancroft and Wisconsin Dells. The Hodags will open the season at home Nov. 20 against Crandon. 

Bantams join Hodags for first hockey practice

    Coach Bryan Kronberger discusses a play during Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey practice at the Rhinelander Ice Arena Monday, Nov. 10. The Hodags shared the ice with the Rhinelander Ice Association’s bantam team during Monday’s first practice. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

There were far more skaters than usual on the ice Monday during the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team’s first practice of the season. 

The Hodags were sharing the ice with the Rhinelander Ice Association’s bantam hockey team. Coach M.J. Laggis that’s something his team will likely do several times during the season to give the eighth- and ninth-grade bantams a taste of high school hockey. 

“Including the Bantams on these Mondays really allows us to have a ton of bodies, a ton of competition, and just try to get everyone to see, ‘Hey, the culture of this place is on the way up,’” he said. “Our theme on Monday … and we’ve been planning it for a long time (is) just try to make it work with the amount of bodies, make it us competitive as possible. So it was a really good first day for us.”

As far as bodies at the high school level, Laggis said the team will be just under 20 skaters, a tick up from a season ago. The Hodags are trying to rebound this year after going 3-22-0 last season and bowing out to eventual WIAA D2 state champion Tomahawk in the first round of the playoffs. 

“That number isn’t that much different from last year, but I’ll tell you, there’s a difference. The difference is, I think, the commitment level in that 18, 19 is a lot different than last year, so it’s going to feel different,” Laggis said. “We’re really trying to turn a new leaf from last year. Last year was a difficult year on so many levels, and we’re just trying to raise a level of commitment. We’re trying to raise the level of competition. We’re trying to raise the level of character in that locker room.”

The Hodags have brought in alum and youth coach Randy Ostrom to the coaching staff. He helped guide the RIA’s Peewee A team to a WAHA state championship back in March. 

The Hodags will open the season Nov. 25 at Shawano/Bonduel. In addition to conditioning, Laggis said much of the team’s preseason ice time will be focused on skills and systems. 

“We’re just going to really try to get everyone up to speed on skills,” he said. “We’re going to put systems in. We’re going to try to practice systems in a real competitive way. And to be honest, I’m not married to any one system, but I want our systems to work for our kids, so that’s a constant conversation we’re already having as coaches.”

Gymnasts gearing up for long season

    Alexis Smith swings from the parallel bars as coach Kristina Aschenbrenner, far right, and members of the Rhinelander High School gymnastics team look on during practice at the YMCA of the Northwoods Monday, Nov. 10. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

It will be several weeks before the Rhinelander High School gymnastics team has its first meet of the season — and several more weeks before its schedule kicks into high gear. 

Because of that, coach Kristina Aschenbrenner said she had a bit of a different approach as practice got underway on Monday. 

“We are going to focus a lot on conditioning and preventative rehabilitation exercises,” she said. “Those are the two big things. Just the conditioning, the rehabilitative exercises, just to prevent injuries. And then working on skills. These girls know how to put together a routine. If I said go, I would have five varsity girls tomorrow do routines. I’m not worried about us having routines ready.”

The Hodags have good numbers again, sitting at roughly 15-16 athletes as practice begins. Many of them already had a head start on the season, participating in the YMCA of the Northwoods’ competitive gymnastics program. Returning juniors Alexis Smith, Sam Aschenbrenner and Karly Gillingham fared well in the one meet the Y gymnasts had before the start of the high school season. 

“Alexis winning vault, Sam winning beam, Karly placing multiple times, these girls are they’re veteran competitors and they have that experience, which is great being able to come in and start the season already kind of in the groove of doing routines and doing gymnastics,” coach Aschenbrenner said. 

The Hodags are coming a runner-up finish in the GNC Small division last year, posting scores it hadn’t achieved in seven seasons. Rhinelander return the majority of that squad from a season ago, leading to increased optimism around the program. 

“These girls have a chance of doing some good things as a team this year, and I think there are some skills that we can get — especially if we just focus on that for the first few weeks and hopefully strengthen up so we can prevent some injuries so we have girls all season long,” coach Aschenbrenner said. 

That is especially true, considering that Rhinelander’s schedule is back-loaded once again this year. The Hodags will open at home Dec. 13 with the Snowflake Invite at the YMCA of the Northwoods, but seven of the team’s 12 scheduled competitions on the season will take place in a 28-day stretch between the Antigo Invite Jan. 31 and Feb. 27 when the Hodags will return to Antigo for WIAA sectional competition. 

“The goal is to be preventative, just working on skills, and then once a meet’s coming up, we’ll focus that week on routines, but to really start building with the goal of hitting our peak (at) conference and sectionals,” coach Aschenbrenner said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].